Saturday, 25 February 2012

A couple of pictures of Artizan 28mm WW2 German Infantry. These were painted a while ago using the Army Painter method.

My next post will be the Natal Mounted Police and Carbineers. I am working on some War of the Roses figures and buildings and also AWI figures and buildings at the moment, so they will be coming up in future posts along with some more Zulu War.

Friday, 17 February 2012

I have been quite busy on the painting front and have finished the Zulu War characters, Natal Mounted Police and Natal Carbineers. The last two units I will post in a future blog as this post is already picture heavy.

I painted the main characters twice, as one set was a commission and this was an ideal time to paint them.

These are the last batch of British infantry that I did.

The following pictures are of the British Infantry so far.

I think that is enough pictures to keep you going for a little while. I just need to purchase the ensign pack from Empress Miniatures and the flags from Flags of War when I attend Salute in April, to finish off the infantry.
Next week will probably be a different period again and then the post after that will be some great pictures I have taken of my Natal Mounted Police and Carbineers, first mounted and then dismounted with their horse holders being pursued by the Zulu.

Friday, 10 February 2012

In my last post I mentioned I would submit other periods occasionally to give a bit of variety from my Zulu posts.
These figures are mostly Artizan with a few Warlord figures in amongst them. I painted these a while ago using the Army Painter method, which is a quick way to get figures on the table with a basic paint job.

I found with 'Army Painter' that after a while the liquid in the tin went hard and became unusable. This happened even though I only opened the lid on rare occasions when I had a big batch of figures to do and made sure the lid was resealed nice and tight afterwards. I don't know how much it costs now, but at the time it was £18 a tin which works out quite expensive when you are throwing two thirds of the tin away. It would sell better I think if they sold AP in smaller tins at a reduced price.

Anyway, I am a slow painter with the black undercoat and three layer method and I liked the idea of painting figures quickly using the AP method, so I now use a white undercoat and one layer followed by washes and a highlight on the flesh and some colours like British Scarlet. (I have painted my Zulu War British using this method.)

I find this method nearly as quick as using AP but I have more control with my painting and prefer the finished result, plus it works out a lot cheaper. Having said that, it is all about personal taste and if you can aford it, AP gets reasonably painted figures on the table very quickly.

I have just finished painting Empress Miniatures mounted and dismounted Natal Mounted Police along with their horse holders. I will post these in a future blog, plus I will post some WW2 German Infantry at a later date.

I have been unable to varnish the rest of my Zulu War British yet due to the freezing conditions we are experiencing in the UK (and in my garage) but if it warms up a bit I will get this and their basing finished ready for next weeks blog.

Friday, 3 February 2012

I managed to paint two batches of figures last week, twelve man firing line and twelve officers and NCO's. This brings the British Infantry up to 93 figures so far. I have another eight figures that I am painting at the moment, these are the film version of Chard, Bromhead etc, then when this lot have been varnished and the bases finished, maybe I will do a little photo shoot of my British along with the NNC and some Zulu's.

The figures in the picture below are from Empress Miniatures historical version of Chard and Bromhead. I have painted them in dark blue patrol jackets as I will already have the film version of these characters painted in their scarlet coats.

NCO's to the front.

The officer on the right in the picture below is from Wargames Foundry all the rest of these figures are from Empress Miniatures. Foundry are a pretty good match scale wise and even though they have been around for a long time, they are still excellent figures.

I might start submitting my Zulu period stuff on alternate entries in future for a bit of variation as this is starting to become a Zulu blog which is not what I intended.

SETTING THE SCENE terrain book

About Me

Hi, my name is Pat and I live in the United Kingdom with my wife and son. I have a growing collection of unpainted plastic and lead toy soldiers which I am fighting a losing battle with as the pile keeps growing. Hope you enjoy this blog,
Pat.